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Why I Didn’t Have Time to Pick Up More Cat Food….

My husband understands that I have my hands full every day with taking care of our son full time and managing the photography business full time as well. What he doesn’t quite get is how literally every minute of my day is filled. He often comes home and asks why I didn’t have time to go run a particular errand, like picking up more dog or cat food. We have two dogs and two cats, so when we get more food, we get the biggest bag they have available, which I cannot lift on my own. He often encourages me to find an employee to help me, but I often feel like retail employees are usually around when you don’t want help, and no where to be found when you are in a hurry and need help. I simply do not have the time to wander around the pet store, trying to find someone to help me lift a bag of food into my cart. So, to prove a point to him about why it is much easier if he just stops off at the pet store on the way home from work, I decided to log an entire day, noting everything I did all day.

As a full time business owner, and work from home mom, there is not exactly a “typical day” for me. Some days are busier than others. Some days are more difficult than others. Some days the baby refuses to nap and I actually would prefer sitting in bumper to bumper traffic since at least that would probably get him to take a nap. The day I logged happened to be one of my busier days. Most days there is a lot more time spent chasing our baby around the house, playing with him in his room, and trying to convince him to take a nap. This day however, was a different sort of day.

I don’t always juggle watching E and working with clients at the same time, but sometimes I have to do it. I always make sure someone is available to babysit him when I have a newborn session scheduled, or a session with a new client. Other times, for short appointments, I will occasionally juggle watching E and working with my clients since our accountant mentioned that I cannot deduct babysitter expenses as a business expense (such a lame tax rule). Circus jugglers have nothing compared to my skills these days.

6:30 a.m. Get woken up by baby for morning milk. Breastfeed him and try to go back to sleep for a bit.
7:00 a.m. Give up on trying to sleep, say morning prayers, then grab phone and start scanning through emails and blog comments. Start responding to as many as possible.
7:30 a.m. Let dogs outside in the backyard, and put each pet’s flea medicine in their bowl with their breakfast.
7:45 a.m. Let the dogs back inside and go back to bed for a few minutes to respond to more emails.
8:00 a.m. Start a load of laundry.
8:20 a.m. Add additional baby proofing gadgets to my office.
8:30 a.m. Clean guest bathroom in my office. Start cleaning our bathroom also.
8:40 a.m. Hear baby wake up earlier than usual, and beg husband to watch him for a few minutes so I can actually finish cleaning both bathrooms.
8:55 a.m. Wash hands, heat up some oatmeal for breakfast for myself and baby.
9:00 a.m. Clean highchair. Sit down with baby to eat breakfast.
9:10 a.m. Unload clean dishes from dishwasher.
9:21 a.m. Stop fight between our toy poodle and male cat.
9:24 a.m. Load new round of dirty dishes in dishwasher.
9:27 a.m. Stare at emails for a bit (writer’s block on some responses). Respond to more emails.
9:29 a.m. Wash baby’s hands.
9:30 a.m. Inspect washing machine to see if it is broken or demon possessed (not really of course) based on the strange noises it suddenly started making. Determine that there doesn’t appear to be anything immediately wrong with it.
9:31 a.m. Change baby’s diaper and clothes.
9:33 a.m. Tidy up my office.
9:40 a.m. Have a conversation with baby E about how he keeps throwing my paint brushes all over my office.
9:49 a.m. E makes a noise that sounds suspiciously like “damnit”. Make a note to discuss language with my husband.
9:52 a.m. Prep shower/bath for baby and me.
9:55 a.m. Pick up all of my makeup that E has thrown all over the bathroom. Find missing Nemo bath toy and feel like a hero.
9:56 a.m. Simultaneous shower for me and bath for baby.
10:05 a.m. Brush my teeth and baby’s teeth. Multitasking at its finest.
10:10 a.m. Milk time for E.
10:20 a.m. Get us both dressed.
10:25 a.m. Prep camera for morning appointment.
10:27 a.m. Unwrap box of prints that arrived from photo lab.
10:30 a.m. Meet with clients for mini session. Simultaneously entertaining E in the room with his own toys, while keeping him out of the picture.
11:20 a.m. Clients leave, and I turn on my computer, hoping to get a bit of work done.
11:21 a.m. Give up and turn computer off.
11:22 a.m. Check vacuum robot to see why it is sending out a distress call.
11:25 a.m. My dad happens to be in the area today, and has some time to kill between doctor’s appointments. He comes by to visit with E. This is not part of our usual routine, so an extra set of hands to help out was a huge relief!
11:26 a.m. Spend a bit of time playing with the dogs, feeling sad that I can’t take them on long hikes the way I used to do before my pregnancy injuries.
11:35 a.m. Milk for E.
11:40 a.m. Package print order for client and send email.
11:43 a.m. Prep paperwork to mail to DMV, applying for temporary handicapped placard.
11:44 a.m. Gather together everything I need to go run a few errands.
11:45 a.m. Check robot distress call again, then leave for grocery store and post office.
12:25 p.m. Get home, try to convince dogs to pee. They are protesting since our patio was flooded from previous rain.
12:26 p.m. Untangle vacuum robot from its latest adventure.
12:27 p.m. Put away groceries and start heating up lunch.
12:32 p.m. Give up on robot and put it away. Milk and diaper change for E.
12:37 p.m. Clean highchair and feed E lunch.
12:45 p.m. Remember laundry needs to be moved to dryer.
12:46 p.m. Finish putting away groceries.
12:50 p.m. Dad leaves.
12:51 p.m. Eat lunch while checking phone for texts/emails/etc.
12:58 p.m. Update social media.
1:02 p.m. Feed pets lunch.
1:07 p.m. More milk for E while responding to emails. E falls asleep for nap.
1:36 p.m. Water house plants.
1:56 p.m. Say a brief prayer of thanksgiving for the rain the day before, which allowed me to skip watering the plants outside this morning. Realize that the rain and my dad’s unexpected visit helped free up a few minutes for me. Decide to take a nap for once. Set an alarm to wake me up in 15 minutes.
2:11 p.m. Wake up, return missed calls and texts.
2:40 p.m. Notice that our toy poodle ate 100+ pound dog’s flea medicine. Call vet for advice.
2:45 p.m. Look for female cat while on hold since I haven’t seen her yet all day and am starting to get really worried.
3:03 p.m. Get advice to prepare for lots of doggy barf (the following day was spent cleaning up little dog’s throw up all day long).
3:05 p.m. Google how to hack shower bubbles spray cleaner and Swiffer wet jet mop (want to replace with my plant based Method sprays).
3:15 p.m. Find success with hacking Shower Bubbles but not Swiffer.
3:17 p.m. Mop living room with un-hacked Swiffer and a bottle of spray cleaner.
3:26 p.m. Put away house plants that I watered.
3:40 p.m. Find Pearl and spend some time playing with her with her favorite toy.
3:52 p.m. Attempt to clear off some of the stuff on the tables in the living room.
4:00 p.m. Try to start another load of laundry, but then E wakes up. Give up on laundry.
4:01 p.m. Diaper change.
4:02 p.m. Afternoon client arrives for mini session, and juggling act resumes with E in my office.
4:30 p.m. E has play time with client/friend’s baby.
5:30 p.m. Clean up little dog’s poop in the living room.
5:35 p.m. Wrestle with E, trying to force a clothing change.
5:40 p.m. Drive to Whole Foods to pick up sample bottle of wine for blog post.
6:00 p.m. Return phone call for potential client while standing around outside Whole Foods.
6:10 p.m. Pick out wine.
6:30 p.m. Get home. Milk for E.
6:40 p.m.-8:00 p.m. Blur of prepping dinner, eating, cleaning up after dinner, taking photos for blog post, writing blog post, responding to more emails.
8:00 p.m. Spend some time playing with one of the cats.
8:15 p.m. Start working on photo editing while husband gets baby ready for bed.
9:00 p.m. Say goodnight to husband and baby. Go back to office and continue working.
11:00 p.m. Milk for E.
11:15 p.m. Go back to office and continue working.
2:00 a.m. Realize it is my bed time, and even though I am no where near caught up, I need to get at least a couple of hours of sleep because the game starts all over again in just a few short hours.

So…if you are an old friend and are wondering why you haven’t heard from me in a while, this is why. This is my life now. 🙂

Working on this post was an eye-opening experience for both my husband and me. It made us realize that I cannot keep up this pace nor is it worthwhile to us. I am going to be making some pretty serious adjustments to the way I handle this photography business going forward. There is one aspect of our son’s personality that drives me crazy: he runs himself ragged, refusing to rest until he is cranky and hysterical. I realized I have been doing the exact same thing to myself with this business. I have been tired, cranky, angry, working too hard and still not meeting my goals. I’m going to shoot less, enforce my policies 100% of the time going forward, and have price increases on certain things. It is the only way I will be able to continue at all.

As a side note…I have been trying to get a picture of all 5 of our crazy kids together for a while. The most difficult part is the fact that one cat is still afraid of E. The crazy photo above is the closest I’ve gotten so far, and you can’t even see most of their faces. 🙂 They are a wild bunch.